Good news for thumb suckers, nailbiters

As parents, we have a tendency to discourage or stop our children from thumb sucking or biting their nails. In adult years, we associate nail biting to stress or as a coping mechanism under pressure.

Thumb-sucking, on the other hand, is said to affect the way kids’ teeth grow. If a child isn’t trained to keep himself off the habit, the practice can lead to embarrassing moments in later years.

But, listen here.

A new study, says a Reuters Health story, suggests that children who suck their thumb or bite their nails are less likely to develop allergies than others.

According to the “hygiene hypothesis,” early life exposure to microbes may decrease the risk of having allergies, which may explain why kids with oral habits have fewer allergies as adults.

The senior author of the study Dr. Robert J. Hancox of the Dunedin School of Medicine at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand said that this observational study might not prove that thumb sucking or nail biting cause reduction in allergies.

Over 1,000 children born in 1972-1973 whose parents reported their nail-biting and thumb-sucking tendencies at ages five, seven, nine and 11 were tested for allergies which include pin-prick tests at ages 13 and 32.

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